To Run the World
The Kremlin's Cold War Bid for Global Power

Reveals how perennial insecurities, delusions of grandeur, and desire for recognition propelled Moscow on a headlong quest for global power.

Sergey Radchenko (Author)

9781108477352, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 30 May 2024

768 pages
23.6 x 16.4 x 4.5 cm, 1.24 kg

'Mining the archives during years when there was greater openness, Radchenko produces revelations ranging from the chilling to the bizarre.' Mark Urban, A Sunday Times Book of the Year

What would it feel like To Run the World? The Soviet rulers spent the Cold War trying desperately to find out. In this panoramic new history of the conflict that defined the postwar era, Sergey Radchenko provides an unprecedented deep dive into the psychology of the Kremlin's decision-making. He reveals how the Soviet struggle with the United States and China reflected its irreconcilable ambitions as a self-proclaimed superpower and the leader of global revolution. This tension drove Soviet policies from Stalin's postwar scramble for territory to Khrushchev's reckless overseas adventurism and nuclear brinksmanship, Brezhnev's jockeying for influence in the third world, and Gorbachev's failed attempts to reinvent Moscow's claims to greatness. Perennial insecurities, delusions of grandeur, and desire for recognition propelled Moscow on a headlong quest for global power, with dire consequences and painful legacies that continue to shape our world.

Introduction
Part I. Ambition: 1. The Postwar
2. The parting of ways
3. Stalin in Europe
4. Stalin in Asia
Part II. Hubris: 5. Love Us As We Are
6. The Golden Hoop
7. The Twin Crises
8. Killing Flies
9. Camp David
10. Berlin
11. Cuba
Part III. Decline: 12. Vietnam
13. Detente
14. Yom Kippur
15. Decline
16. Tensions Mount
17. The Final Nail
Part IV. Collapse: 18. Fear
19. Hope
20. Collapse
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: International relations [JPS]